(Written by Dario Drmac of Wine and More)

The experience of getting to know Graševina can be romantic, platonic, or even euphoric.

Graševina comes in countless forms. Perhaps you’ve encountered a genetically identical variety – Welschriesling – but in Croatia, this variety makes for an entirely different wine.

A national saying is that only wine varieties that contain in their names “vina” (wine) are worth celebrating. Therefore, only Graše-vina and Kralje-vina are accepted by those who love a good summer refreshment. The popular drink “gemišt” is a traditional mixture of said varieties and carbonated water. Although the combination of the two is unacceptable to any serious wine enthusiast, this simple cocktail was historically used to quench the thirst of local villagers after exhausting stints of work under the summer sun. Continental Croatia, has, after all, been known to get searingly hot.

The entirety of continental Croatia is planted with Graševina. Considering that Graševina is by far the most widespread variety in Croatia, it’s a natural consequence that not all wines can be of acceptable quality. However, grown appropriately, in the right place and in the right way, this variety creates excellent conditions for the making of dry or sweet late harvest wines, or the base for classic sparkling wines. Graševina agrees well with wooden barrels and can age both in a cellar and in bottle, but it’s best in its freshest form straight from Inox – low in alcohol and highly drinkable.

Deeply rooted, Graševina is today considered an indigenous Croatian variety, and considering that the best wines of the variety come from Croatia, Graševina is accepted as the primary name for the Welschriesling variety. The aromatic profile most often calls upon flavors of young fruit and flowers. Elderberry, chamomile, and even green apple and vineyard peach are common aromatic descriptors. The most ambitious Graševinas have been known to contain the heady smell of quince, sometimes with the mineral sensations. As always, location makes a difference. It’s well known that the grapes of different locations make for wines of different characteristics. In such vineyards, the yields are further reduced and carefully manipulated to preserve the characteristics of the grape and convey that material in the wine. The most well-known locations for Graševina are the vineyards of Kutjevo, Mitrovac, Hrnjevac, and Venje.

The most extreme example of concentration is when the winemaker leaves nature to ripen and over-ripen a still healthy grape on the vine, sometimes even in the conditions of an ice harvest. These wines consecutively win the highest prizes at the most respected global competitions.

However, today in Croatia, the most prized Graševina is very dry and fresh, preserved and accented with primary aromas like those achieved in the amphitheaters of Plešivica, the hills of Zagorje and Prigorje, the slopes of Moslavina and the greens of Međimurje, but also increasingly in the Danube region in the sunny vineyards of the fertile Baranja, Erdut and Ilok, from where previously came heavier, warmer Graševinas. The best balance between ripeness and preserved freshness is traditionally achieved at the listed locations of Kutjevo.

In conclusion, Graševina is exceptionally rewarding, both in the vineyard, where it becomes indigenous, in the cellar, where it regularly achieves great characteristics worthy of excellent wines and on the table while it is enjoyed. There’s virtually no meal for which a suitable Graševina couldnt be selected, and some Graševinas are capable of following an entire meal without the need for another wine.

Did you know?

Graševina (or Grašica) translates to “green peas” in Croatian. Croatians have fallen so in love with this variety that they named it after the appearance of the berries during a certain part of the ripening process, when they most resemble green peas.

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Although the word “grk” literally means bitter, the wine is usually dry, high in acidity, somewhat aromatic and fruity with hints of pine and saltiness. Additionally, the word also stands for “the Greek”, which also hints at the origin. However, recent genetic studies have not shown any connection with the Greek varieties, rather it is confirmed to be indigenous to Croatia and a close relative to Tribidrag (which is, admittedly, better known under its other names, Zinfandel and Primitivo).

And that is not the only direct link between the white grape of grk and the indigenous red Plavac Mali: the other one is that Grk grape only has female flowers, so it’s unable to produce the fruit without the secondary variety growing alongside it in the vineyard. And that secondary variety is usually Plavac Mali in the Lumbarda vineyards, and has been for centuries, because both of those varieties blossom at the same time, resulting in ripe fruit at the beginning of September – and almost never gives a high yield. The resulting wine has clear golden color with percentage of alcohol almost always below 14 per cent.

The wine is best experienced locally, in Lumbarda where it’s grown and ripened, alongside local gastronomy: sea food, fish, any kind of risottos and white meat. It can also be served as an aperitif, but just remember that Grk needs to be served cold, at 12-13 °C. One other word of advice: if you make yourself a nice steak for dinner, avoid the temptation to pair it with your big red, a Pinot Noir or a Cabernet Sauvignon and give a bottle of Grk a try – at a somewhat higher temperature, somewhere around 16 °C, and make sure you let us know how that works for you!

Not a lot of Grk is produced and bottled yearly (after all, there are less than 40 acres of Grk vineyards on Korčula!), and your best chance of buying it is on Korčula, so if you happen to find yourself there, treat yourself to a nice tour of the wineries. The last name you’ll see the most is Cebalo, as three members of the family are producing Grk, Bartul, Branimir and Zoran. Other notable producers are Milina-Bire and Milina-Lovrić families, as well and Zure family. Also, a bit of extravagance can be found in a bottle of dessert wine, Slatki život (sweet life) made by the Rončević family on – Lastovo!

And if you really want to, try pronouncing it something like “gerkh”, but no one will mind if you mispronounce it: it has no vowels, after all!

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It is grown almost exclusively in the southern-most Croatia, as produces the best wines if grown in abundant heat and sunshine and as little rain as possible in the late spring and summer. So, the Pelješac peninsula, as well as the islands of Hvar and Brač, and vineyards in Konavle region, south of Dubrovnik are the locations where most of the really good Plavac Mali wines are made. The yield is quite low, per vine, but the sugar content is extremely high, so the wine has high alcohol content (13 – 15%, usually, but some producers have gone as high as 17% !), and also high tannins.

The flavour is mostly described as rustic, with hints of dark berries, cherry, pepper and spice, and the wine has excellent aging capabilities, especially in the best years, when the wine is high quality to begin with. Often it is aged in oak barrels, and the result is a rich, powerful wine that can be paired with beef, either steaks or beef stew (especially with the type of stew you can find in Dalmatia under the name “dalmatinska pašticada”) or tuna steaks. If you visit the Pelješac peninsula, a very narrow strip of land in Dalmatia, make sure to take the time to visit Plavac Mali vineyards, because their locations and the angle at which they are grown overlooking the sea (sometimes almost 50°) and then you will get a newfound respect for the wine and the people that have grown it in those locations for centuries. Maybe you’ll hear the words postup and dingač when the locals are talking about the plavac mali wines: those two denote the exact location where the vineyards are!

Among the most notable producers is Mike Grgich, the famous Californian wine-maker who is the most famous for his crucial role in the 1976 Paris Judgement, who has been making wine in Croatia for the last two decades, but whose vineyards have suffered a blow in the catastrophic wildfires on Pelješac in 2015. Other producers from Pelješac you should remember are Korta Katarina, Mokalo, Matuško, Miloš, Miličić and Madirazza. On Hvar, Plenković family is the one that started creating high-quality Plavac Mali wines, and you won’t miss with Tomić or PZ Svirče plavac. In the Konavle region, Plavac Mali tastes a bit different, so compare, if you can, one made by Dubrovački podrumi or Crvik family with the ones already listed. And, a small tip: if you like rose wine, make sure to taste a rose made from Plavac Mali variety – either by Korta Katarina, Saint Hills or Miloš’s Stagnum Rose!

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Teran wine made from the Teran grapes in the western Istria is a ruby red, almost purple red wine. The quality of the wine depends greatly on the location and the conditions in the vineyard. It requires a lot of sun (especially in the late summer, because it’s picked unusually late), not a lot of water and good timing when the grapes are fully ripe. If those conditions are met, what you get is a ruby-red, almost purple wine of a typical, fruity aroma that is easy to recognize, and has hints of berries and pepper, unusually high acidity and high tannins and not too high alcohol content: 12 – 13%. Usually enjoyed as a young wine, as the traditional wisdom is that it does not age too well, rarely aged outside of the bottle it is served alongside red meat, “istarski pršut” (dried ham), strong cheeses and game dishes. The recommendation is to serve it at almost 20 °C, to allow it to show its full potential. Teran wine is often used to make blends with other varieties, and recently producers have started creating excellent rose wines and sparkling wine from Teran grapes (notably, the Peršurić family).

Sensationally, Veralda Istrian 2015, a wine whose label says it’s made from the Refošk variety, although it really is Teran (as we told you, the story of names is a mess), was at a recent Decanter rating given the title “Platinum best in show” in the category of reds 15+ GBP. So, if you get a chance to try that wine, don’t miss it! Other notable producers are Moreno Coronica, Roxanich, Romeo Licul (from the eastern coast of Istria, unlike the others), Kozlović, Kabola, Trapan and Cattunar. And, a pro-tip for the end: if someone offers you the so-called “supa istriana”, take it, it’s not really soup, and yes – it has to do with Teran!

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So, we really couldn’t really say that Maraština is an indigenous wine variety in Croatia, but it has traditionally been grown here and it was only recently shown that it’s genetically the same as all those other varieties. Additionally, some experts believe that it actually is a variety that originated here, but was spread throughout the Mediterranean because of its features and quality. These days, you’ll be able to find Maraština mostly in the south, on the islands of Hvar, Korčula, peninsula Pelješac and Konavle region. The islands of Lastovo and Mljet still have small Maraština vineyards, and the region around Zadar is working on branding their local Maraština as well.

The grapes ripen rather late, consistently give rather high yields, and the sugar content is high when grown on the best possible locations – that should be expected at the positions where it’s grown today, where it gets quite a lot of sun. It has traditionally been used to complement other wine varieties, but when made into wine on its own, it makes a typical southern white wine. Sometimes it’s called “a female wine”, because it’s fragrant and fruity (apricot-y and peach-y), golden yellow colour, full-bodied with hints of vanilla, quite low alcohol content and low acids (that is the reason why it’s so often blended with other varieties that have higher acids).

It should be served not too cold, around 10 °C, and can be enjoyed as an easy drinking wine on its own, or with seafood, salted anchovies, various risottos or goat cheese. Also, Maraština is one of the best Croatian wine varieties for making dessert straw wine using passito method (in Croatian it is called prošek, not to be mistaken with Italian prosecco), and most prošek wine made in the south has Maraština in it. Some winemakers call their product Maraština, others call it Rukatac: pure Maraština is sold by Ivo Duboković from Jelsa on Hvar, both the Sladić wineries near Plastovo (Skradin), Crvik and Bratoš families in Konavle and Vinoplod Šibenik (where it’s made using sur lie method). You will be able to find more wine types sold under the name Rukatac: Šarić family vinery and Saint Vicenco vinery from Lastovo; Bartulović, Antunović, Grgurević (where the wine is called Barrlie) family wineries on Pelješac; PZ Čara, Toreta and Milina wineries on Korčula.

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Crljenak Kaštelanski is probably the most famous indigenous Croatian wine in the world. Of course, not under that name – I mean, who can pronounce it at all, if they called it that it would be very unpopular. So, in the US they call it something else: Zinfandel. In Italy, a third name: Primitivo. In some places in Croatia, it has a local name of Tribidrag (or Pribidrag), and in neighbouring Montenegro they call it Kratošija. It was grown in Croatia ever since they started making wine here, and there are written records from the 15th century, where winemaking out of Tribidrag grapes is described on islands of Hvar and Vis. In the past it was the most abundant red grape variety in Dalmatia, and the quality of its wine and relatively high and regular yields were probably the reasons why it was taken to Italy in the 18th century.

Jancis Robinson, wine critic and book author described by Decanter magazine as ‘the most respected wine critic and journalist in the world’, co-authored the book Wine Grapes, the first book in English to introduce Tribidrag as the prime name for this variety. Her logic in deciding that Tribidrag should be used as the prime name for the variety is that the oldest name gets the title! While the first written reference to the name Primitivo dates from 1799 and to Zinfandel from 1837, the first reference to Tribidrag dates all the way back to the 15^th century, so that’s what she says everyone should be using for the variety!

It got its Italian name, Primitivo, because it ripens much earlier than the other varieties that were grown in Apulia when Tribidrag was introduced (primo – early). It made its way to the United States via Vienna, Austria, which partially explains the name used there, Zinfandel, which sounds oddly Germanic, and is a result of mix-up of several varieties being shipped at the same time. On the east coast the variety was not very successful, but it took a bit of Gold rush fever to get it over to the west coast, where it was a huge success and within few decades it was the most abundant wine in the west coast vineyards at the end of 19th century. In Croatia, however, it was caught in the downward spiral, because of the phylloxera epidemic in the late 19th century, as well as its propensity to powdery mildew and other diseases.

It was rapidly replaced by other red varieties in the south of Dalmatia, mostly very similar variety Plavac Mali that was much less prone to disease. So, by the end of the twentieth century, when scientists were attempting to fully resolve genetic origin of Zinfandel, Plavac Mali, Primitivo and their linkage, the group led by dr. Carole Meredith from the University of Davis, California was able to find about a dozen vines that were genetically confirmed to be an exact match to already previously matched Zinfandel and Primitivo! The find took place in Kaštela, at an old vineyard, where those several vines were mixed with other varieties and it was conclusively proven that Tribidrag is actually a parent to Plavac Mali, that took its position in the Dalmatian vineyards. After that find, the variety has been reintroduced into vineyards in Croatia, while still being researched to create new clones without viral disease that could be transferred to Italy and California.

As already mentioned, Tribidrag ripens rather early, needs less sunny hours than its child Plavac Mali to create high sugars and high acids, and the wine is wonderfully deep red, with lower tannins than Plavac Mali. It is similar to Plavac, especially when it’s grown on similar locations in Croatia, has berries and spices aromas, and should also be served at around 18 °C, accompanying dark red meat dishes, game and even tuna steaks. Several Croatian winemakers have recently started producing and selling Tribidrag wine, although their vineyards mostly contain Italian seedlings, and in the future we expect to see much more authentic Croatian clones being cultivated. Also, in California most Zin is made into a rose wine (so-called white Zin), and we are yet to see if the same attempts will prove successful in Dalmatia. South-Dalmatian Tribidrag has high sugar content, so it is reasonable to believe it could produce high-quality dessert wines.

For now, if you get a chance to taste and buy Tribidrag produced by one of the wineries in the original Kaštela area where Crljenak Kaštelanski gets its name from, you will be drinking the original Zin. Kaštela roducers are Bedalov, Vuina, Krolo and Radunić. Others starting to produce Tribidrag include Stina winery on Brač, Zlatan Crljenak grown on Biokovo mountain on Dalmatian mainland, Kairos Crljenak by Vinski Dvori from Trogir area, Zinfandel Benmosche by a winemaker from Pelješac (Marija Mrgudić) and her American partner – thus the American name for a wine made from grapes grown in Pelješac!, Dubrovački podrumi winery, go for it. Also, it can be found under the name Tribidrag produced by the Rizman winery in Neretva area, Mimica/House of tha Happy Man from Omiš and Grabovac winery in Imotski. So, if you are choosing a wine to take home from Croatia as a gift to someone, consider a bottle of Tribidrag: it will go great with a steak or any dark-meat dish, and it will give you a chance to tell the story of how old Croatian wine variety is one of the most abundant varieties in California, and how that was discovered on the sample of less-than-dozen grapes!

The post The Indigenous Grapes of Croatia: Original Zinfandel, Tribidrag (Crljenak Kaštelanski) appeared first on Total Croatia.

All Muscats belong to a large family with roots in the Near East from where it expanded primarily in the Mediterranean. The sort has a medium exuberance and gives excellent results in limestone, porous and warm soils in hills, at southern and warm expositions. Muscats are savoury wines with a bright green-yellow colour, often with sugar residue, harmonious, with an accented Muscat aroma. Depending on the year, they can give wines in many degrees of quality, from dry light to predicate wines with accented aromas.

Istria is the homeland of the Momjan Muscat, a specific white Muscat, the first wine in Croatia to receive a protected destination of origin label in EU. The Momjan Muscat is recorded as winning gold at the 1935 wine fair in Brussels. Dry and sweet, intensely gold in colour, with a scent reminiscent of wild carnations, rose and sage. Many connoisseurs of Istrian wines will primarily single out the Momjan Muscat. As a devoted friend of sweets, but also any refined meal.

The workshop proved Muscats fit well with all sorts of meals and cause an explosion of taste and smell. The wines were:

1. Degrassi, dry Muscat – recommendation: join with raw shrimp on rucola
2. Kabola, Momjan dry – with celery soup with black truffles
3. Geržinić, yellow Muscat
4. Damjanić, yellow Muscat
5. Degrassi, San Pellegrin, semi-sec
6. Kozlović, momjanski, semi-sweet
7. Poletti, rose, dry
8. Agrolaguna, rose
9. San Salvatore Benvenuti, dried grapes – Momjan

For the original and more from the Women on Wine association, click here.

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When Italians say “prosseco” (admittedly, the two words do sound alike), they mean the sparkling wine, produced exclusively in the northern Italy, made from the glera grape variety (often blended with other white wine varieties).

Having read those two sentences carefully, you are fully aware that those are two different things. What you’re now probably wondering is why are those two completely different products called almost the same? The answer probably lies somewhere near the Italian village of Prosecco, where in the past wine from the variety then called Prosecco was made – sweet, still white wine. Since those times when the name was first shared, the Italians embraced the secondary fermentation technique (different than the one used to make the French Champagnes) in the early 20th century, and started producing high-quality dry sparkling wine in the 1960s. All that time, prošek that is made on this side of the Adriatic has remained almost the same, and it’s well known that it has been produced using the same techniques for almost 2000 years, and that it was even sold as a medicine in Dalmatian pharmacies, including the oldest European pharmacy in Dubrovnik.

However, the Italians have managed to get an EU protection of their prosseco, and due to the lack of understanding of Brussels bureaucrats and most probably not enough effort and knowledge of the Croatian negotiators, succeeded in extending that protection in a way that Croatian wine producers are barred from using the word prošek to label their wine. The explanation given by the EU states that the names are too similar, which could lead to a lot of confusion for the buyers? Since, there were several alternative explanations of what the EU directive means, and Croatian producers still make and sell prošek, as it is virtually impossible to impose such a ban – especially on the level of family producers, where most prošek has been made and consumed anyway.

So, how, where and from which varieties is prošek made? It’s usually made in Dalmatia and on the Dalmatian islands; however, there are prošek producers in Istria and also on the northern Adriatic islands. The varieties used to make prošek vary, but usually those are indigenous Dalmatian varieties, such as vugava, bogdanuša, maraština, malvazija, babić and plavac mali or less-known indigenous red-wine varieties.

All of those varieties can accumulate a lot of sugar given enough time to ripen, and then a method used to create other similar types of dessert wine, so-called straw-wine (or raisin-wine) is used: the fully ripe grapes in perfect condition (no diseases, no bruises, no damage of any kind) is hand-picked and let either on the sun or in the shade to dry further. There are a lot of variations to the well-known passito method (used in Austria and Germany as well to create their strohwein, in France for Vin de Paille and in Italy the wines made this way are called generically passito), so some producers will leave the selected grapes on the vine itself to dry, and the method should be distinguished from similar methods of creating dessert wines, such as ice wine (where the grapes are left on the vine very late, until after the first frost of the season), or noble rot technique.

As the grapes dehydrate during that drying process, the sugar in them gets more concentrated, and the first step in the process of creating prošek is always manual (or, actually, more often it is pedal) crushing of the somewhat hardened and shrivelled berries. Then you need to use special yeasts that are able to work in such extremely high sugar content in order to get alcohol, because the usual yeast strains cannot do it under such conditions. What you need to achieve in the end, after a year of fermentation, is a wine with at least 15 percent alcohol content, that has a lot of remaining sugars (because the starting sugars are so high there’s no way all of it is going to get fermented into alcohol) and relatively high acids that balance the flavour. Unfortunately, some family producers will try and simplify the process by adding sugar to the grape extract before the fermentation or concentrate the juice by cooking the excess water out of the must, but that results in much lower quality of prošek and is completely abandoned by the notable producers, who are trying to create wine of the highest quality.

Prošek is almost always aged in smaller oak barrels, as the wine must be matured for the flavour to evolve and harmonize with the alcohol and the acids in the wine. It ages exceptionally well, so it’s a tradition to keep a bottle of prošek made in the year when the child is born, and open it on the day of the person’s wedding! The colour of prošek depends greatly on the grape varieties used, but is almost always darker, amber or even copper brown (of course, some prošek is made with red wines such as plavac mali, and its colour is quite different and much darker), so it looks a bit like sherry or Madeira wine. And, yes, you should serve (and taste) it from a glass made for dessert wines, port, Madeira or Sauternes glass – smaller and round-bottomed, as it has high sugars and high alcohol, prošek is not the type of wine you’ll have much of.

Because of the method described, which uses highly dried-up berries to produce wine, the volume of wine you get at the end is very low (compared to traditional methods where you take the full berries and crush them), so it’s very expensive to produce prošek. That’s why, traditionally, it is much respected in the Dalmatian family, served only on special occasions, saved for Christmas or a visit from a teacher, doctor or a priest, and offered with a sense of pride – because it is considered to be the best product an amateur winemaker can make.

Have it with a dessert, if you get the opportunity, served at around 16°, and make sure that it’s a dessert made with traditional produce found in Dalmatia: figs, almonds, carob cakes, as prošek accompanies those best. And some experts say that prošek is the dessert wine that you should have with really good chocolate (supposedly works even better than a tawny port), so if you get a chance to give that a try, don’t miss it.

Prošek has, unfortunately, lost some of its popularity in Croatia in recent years, so it won’t be easy finding and buying good prošek. Long-time favourite is Hektorovich, prošek made by the Hvar winemaker Tomić, the wine that made its way to the cover of the La Revue du Vin de France magazine. Brač winery Stina makes their prošek from plavac mali and pošip grapes, and boasts that they are the only commercial producer that uses the traditional method to make prošek. PZ Vrbnik from the island of Krk makes prošek with vrbnička žlahtina, a local favourite. Hvar’s Plenković also makes prošek from plavac mali grapes.

Prošek is usually sold in smaller bottles (up to half a litre), and is quite expensive – so make sure you give it a try before you buy it, and if you’re buying from a smaller producer, inquire a bit about their methods before they convince you that what they have is a traditional prošek.

The post The EU and Prosecco, and How is Prošek Made? appeared first on Total Croatia.

Moslavac is a white wine variety of many names: sometimes it’s also called Pošipel or Pušipel, in Slovenia it’s called Šipon (and since Slovenia is close to the region where it’s mostly cultivated, you’ll hear people in Croatia call it šipon as well), in Hungary it’s called Furmint, and Germans and Austrians call it Mosler.

Obviously, the list of names suggests that the variety does not grow exclusively in Croatia, which is correct. However, most probably it started to spread throughout the central Europe in Croatia – in the region of Moslavina, in fact (thus the name, and, supposedly, the German name Mosler). Side note: even Goethe mentions the variety in the late 19^th century, as an indigenous variety in Moslavina. Croatian origin is confirmed by the facts that the genetic analysis closely links Moslavac to an ancient Croatian indigenous variety of Belina, and that its closest genetic relative is Belina Svetokriška, a rare variety found exclusively in Hrvatsko Zagorje.

Today it is cultivated in the central-European region, and recently it is making a come-back in Croatia, where it has been somewhat neglected in the past. These days it is mostly cultivated and varietal wine made from it in Međimurje, a small region in the northern Croatia, neighbouring Slovenia, Austria and Hungary, while less frequently you’ll be able to find it in Moslavina as well. The grape ripens quite late and can tolerate rather low temperatures (that’s why it has found its place in the central-European region, where it tends to get quite cold). The grapes can have quite a lot of sugar in sunnier years and the acids are always quite high. The high yield the wines can have is the variety’s largest enemy: when not properly handled in the vineyard, it can give quite a lot per vine, but in those cases the quality is significantly lower. When a lower yield is maintained, the quality allows for the creation of premium quality wines, including the predicate dessert wines made from late-harvest grapes.

The association of winemakers based in Međimurje Hortus Croatiae (over 30 producers are in it) promotes only the best Pušipel available on the Croatian marker. So, if you get a chance to try any of the following Pušipels: Tomšić, B. Novak, Štampar, Cmrečnjak (he’s the only one so far who’s tried creating sparkling wine from Pušipel so far!), Horvat, Dvanajščak-Kozol, Jakopić, Kunčić, Kocijan, go for it! It’s an inexpensive, refreshing wine; the colour is a distinct shade of wheat-like yellow, usually somewhat sweeter and not too alcoholic, with nice balancing acids. It can be had on its own, as easy drinking wine, or along with darker meat, Međimurje specialties and other greasier meals.

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Continuing TCN’s look at the indigenous grapes of Croatia on October 1, 2016, we move to the central Croatia, Zagreb region where kraljevina was once the most popular wine variety.

Kraljevina, sometimes called imbrina is an indigenous white wine variety that has probably gotten out of fashion the fastest of all Croatian wines. Just before the war of independence, in the late eighties, Kraljevina was still one of the most popular and widespread grape varieties in the central-Croatian region; in and around the city of Zagreb (the region where it grows is mostly called Prigorje). Not much is known of the origin of this variety, but it was never shown to be grown anywhere else except for the narrow region of Croatia (sometimes smaller vineyards of Kraljevina are also found just across the border in Slovenia). There was a misconception that the variety has a genetic link to the varieties from Portugal (due to an erroneous synonym for the variety and the fact that it shares the region in Croatia with Portugizac), but that has been genetically proven not to be correct.

Kraljevina vineyards produce quite a lot of grapes quite consistently – only extremely cold winters can hamper the yield, and the grapes never manage to accumulate a lot of sugars. The variety’s strongest suit is the fact that a small vineyard regularly produces a lot of grapes, which translates to a lot of wine. Wine made from Kraljevina is not very alcoholic, around 10%, very dry but rather high in acids. In the past Kraljevina was rarely used to create varietal wines, as they were considered not sweet enough to be enjoyed on their own. It was usually blended with other varieties, such as Graševina, Riesling etc growing in the region. And, traditional way of consuming either varietal Kraljevina or blends made with it is (and I do beg for the forgiveness of those reading this that are true wine-lovers and have not grown up in central Europe so you’re not prepared for this) mixed with carbonated water in the ratio 80:20, to give so-called “gemišt”. Mixing kraljevina with a bit of sparkling water bring out the best in it, making it even more refreshing, every Kraljevina’s flaw is suppressed and its qualities are brought forward, so people who enjoy gemišt now and then will tell you that no other variety can ever hope to give such good results. So, if you’re ever somewhere around Zagreb or on Plješivica, maybe invited to a barbeque or “kotlovina” on a hot summer’s day, and you’re offered a gemišt, try and fight your first impulse and give it a try. If it’s Kraljevina, there’s a chance you might even enjoy it.

And winemakers of Zelina (and the rest of Zagreb County) have branded their Kraljevina, and are trying to increase its quality; they’re working with the scientists to create clone selection that will enable the new vineyards to be planted with the best possible clones. Some are creating and bottling varietal wine, light and fresh, greeny-yellow in colour with mild flowery aroma: Puhelek-Purek, Jarec-Kure, Kos and several other wineries. Serve it cooled to 12°C, and have it either with fattier meals or any traditional meal for the Prigorje region – kotlovina, purica s mlincima (turkey with a very local pasta variety), cooked ham baked in the bread etc. And, we kept a surprise for the end: Puhelek-Purek family decided to make something no one would expect from this variety: a sparkling wine! Their Kraljica is the only Kraljevina sparkling wine, mostly considered to be a very successful experiment.

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